Alistair
began by giving a brief sketch of the City of Yarra and the characteristics
that have helped make it the most bike friendly municipality in Melbourne, with
the highest rate of people riding to work in Australia. It’s small, has
relatively low car ownership, has a left-leaning council and it spends big on
bike infrastructure, leading Bixie in the last three years with expenditure of
$16 per head.

He went on
to outline the approach that Yarra is taking to making the city even more bike
friendly. The overall rationale is to prioritise pedestrians and cyclists over
motor traffic on local roads. This includes reducing speed limits and reducing
lane widths for motor vehicles, thus making these roads less attractive as rat
runs. This is being done incrementally as roads are re-sheeted or line-marked. Bike
lanes are being gradually widened, and where there is no room for bike lanes,
bike stencils (Yarra sharrows) are used to alert motorists that they are
sharing the roadway with cyclists. They believe that Australian standards
cannot be applied in older areas such as Yarra. There has been no cost in terms
of road safety but rather the contrary, and there has been very little parking
loss as a result of their works.

For a
fuller account see Alistair’s slides and conference paper attached to these
minutes.

4.BUG Presentations

Spokespeople
for each of the BUGs represented gave short presentations on their various
activities and concerns.

·Yarra BUG: Steve Barrnett pointed out that
Yarra BUG is atypical with its main focus on running its radio show on 3CR.
They have now produced over 200 shows. They also attend Yarra BAC meetings and
will be presenting at the next Council meeting on the Wellington St bike lanes.

·Glen Eira BUG: Helen Millicer reported that lots
of new bike lanes have been installed as per the Bicycle Strategy. Cycling is
getting good support from Council and positive bike messages are appearing in
the local paper.

·Boroondara BUG: Alister Huth reported that the BUG
is currently pushing two projects in particular. One is the Hawthorn to Box
Hill Trail through the centre of the municipality, and the other is the Dights
Falls Trail alongside the Eastern Fwy along the northern boundary. Neither is
expected to happen quickly, but both are important projects that need to be
pursued in the long term.

·Melbourne BUG: Raili Simjoki reported that a new
east-west route through the city is badly needed as neither of the trails
beside the Yarra is working well. Improvements to St Kilda Rd and Princes
Bridge are in the pipeline. A new masterplan for Southbank and Southbank Bvd
has been completed but the BUG has not yet seen this. A cycling ban instated on
the Sandridge Bridge was very quickly reversed after outrage flooded the social
media. Raili commented on the BUG’s support for the BNV rallies and the good
result so far from these.

·Whitehorse Cyclists Advocates: David Hall reported that his group
is still working on the Box Hill to Ringwood Rail Trail with the DOT, including
issues of grade separations. They have also been involved in a committee
working on an off-road path along the Healesville Fwy reserve. They continue to
push for a path along the pipetrack from Syndal to Heatherdale, but there is no
money as yet and problems of responsibility for maintenance need to be resolved.
Roads with 70 and 80kph speed limits are a problem for cyclists in Whitehorse.

·Moreland BUG: Bill Cawte reported that Moreland
has a new Bike Strategy, and a Council ride coming up. He raised the issue of
private car parks, eg at supermarkets, that need better bike parking. Council
while sympathetic lacks power to enforce this. This was seen by others as a State
Planning issue with a need to involve the Minister. There is material on the
BNV web site on this. This was signalled as a possible agenda item for our next
meeting.

·Darebin Council: Edward Hore reported that Darebin
has a new Bike Strategy up for comment. Darebin like Yarra is using sharrows.
Edward described an issue with trams in St Georges Rd which he intends raising
with Darebin BUG.

·Brimbug: Graeme Oke reported that the new section of
the Kororoit Creek Trail which connects Sunshine to the Federation Trail is to
be officially opened on 22/9 complete with interpretive signage. A recent reconciliation
bike ride attracted good numbers. There is currently a serious issue with works
on the new regional rail line cutting off access to whole areas that were
already isolated. A petition is in train. A new Sunshine town centre plan has
been released. At LaTrobe University monthly bike breakfasts continue.

·Moonee BUG: Frank Kinnersley reported that the
Maribyrnong River Trail is still not completely repaired. Long delays were
attributed to dealings over insurance but it now seems the path was not insured.
Some repair work has been carried out but recent heavy rain has caused further
damage. The trail should be realigned to avoid this recurring in future but
issues with aboriginal artefacts in the area make this difficult. Some new bike
lanes have been installed in the municipality, and there are currently
proposals for some kind of lanes on Mt Alexander Rd.

·Manningham BUG: Alan Ball reported that the issue
with bike bypasses at roundabouts has been resolved satisfactorily with signs
now indicating ‘Cyclists Only’ instead of ‘All cyclists’. The BUG now has a
councilor member riding with them. The extensions to the Mullum Mullum Trail
continue at a slow pace, with one new 1km section to Park Rd recently completed,
but much more still waiting.

5.Bike Share

Raili Simjoki explained that the
State Government is currently assessing the Melbourne Bike Share as its initial
term comes to an end. Melbourne BUG is proposing the scheme needs an exemption
from helmet laws to succeed and create a new demographic of cyclist in the City
area. They propose to write to the Minister and seek a meeting on it and would
welcome support from other BUGs. At the moment the bikes are used on average
less than once per day, in contrast with successful schemes in other cities
where usage is from 5 to 10 trips per day per bike. There was some discussion
of this. Views differed but it seems that there are various possible reasons
for the poor performance of the scheme, and it is not clear who will be willing
to take over when the current contractors, the RACV, withdraw.

6.City of
Melbourne is planning improved lanes in Elizabeth St between Haymarket
Roundabout and Victoria St.

In the outbound direction they are planning a
kerbside, physically separated lane, but inbound they want to put the bikes on
the dangerous side of the parked cars and make them cross two lanes of left
turning traffic at Victoria St. Melbounre BUG is proposing a red left-arrow for
cars to allow bikes to travel with the green, and the left-turning cars would
get their green arrow while the corresponding reverse movement (right turn into
Elizabeth St from Victoria St) takes place. Council has to argue this with
Vicroads who are against it because they say it will cause congestion for
inbound car traffic. Melbourne BUG plan to write to the minister on this, and would
appreciate support from BUGs to the north and north-west. Several of those
present use this route and had comments to make. Frank Kinnersley suggested an
alternative solution involving moving the bike lane across to the right of the
left turn lanes at the previous intersection.

7.Guidelines/etiquette
for group rides on shared paths similar to VicRoads 'On Road Cycling Events'

Alan
Tonkin said that he had experienced situations where large groups of
recreational cyclists were blocking shared paths making it hard for single,
faster riders to pass. Others present agreed that this can be a problem.
Suggested solutions included an accredited ride leader program. BNV has offered
such training in the past but is not doing so at present. There was general
agreement that there are many issues of behavioural problems on shared paths.
Some very fast riders should get off the paths and onto the roads. Other
suggested solutions were liaison with local councils, items in In the Loop, and adoption of Bike Ed
standards. Alan agreed to convene an informal meeting over coffee to draft some
guidelines to bring to our next meeting.

8.Use of rumble
strips on bike paths – potential dangers.

Alan Tonkin spoke of his concern
that rumble strips now being installed on bike paths to slow cyclists, eg on
downhills, are potentially dangerous as they can cause road bikes in particular
to lose traction in wet conditions. They were also seen as a tripping hazard
for pedestrians. Jason den Hollander compared rumble strips to bollards, both
being mechanical devices used to slow cyclists which then become hazards in
their own right. BNV supports painted strips as a visual warning to slow down
but opposes rumble strips.

9.Move to stop cyclists riding through parks
in Boroondara.

Julia Blunden reported that Council is investigating
bringing the rules for riding on paths in parks in line with VicRoads rules for
cycling on footpaths. Only children under 12, accompanying adults, Australia
Post workers and those with a medical certificate may legally ride on our
footpaths. It seems that this is not an issue in other municipalities at
present.

David Hall raised the question of possible change to Victoria’s rules on
footpath riding. Queensland, Tasmania, ACT and NT permit riding on footpaths.
Jason den Hollander said that BNV is proposing that the age for riding on
footpaths be raised from 12 to 16?

Glennys Jones pointed out that the provision for use of a medical certificate
could be used much more fully than it is at present.
Adults and youths who have obtained written permission (certificate) from a
Registered Medical Practitioner are legally allowed to ride on the footpath.
VicRoads does not specify any forms or assessment. It is much like a Doctors
Certificate, the Registered Medical Practitioner states that it is
“undesirable, impracticable or inexpedient for the rider to ride on the
road” Practitioner notes can be found on
page 148 of the Austroads Fitness to
Drive March 2012) The bulk of the document deals with fitness to drive a
motor vehicle with just one paragraph dedicated to riding on footpaths.

The letter does not
specify the degree or nature of the disability. The earlier sections of the
guide give some insight to conditions that have implications as a road user –
including vision, hearing and age related conditions.

10.Reasons for non-renewal of BNV membership

Gordon Macmillan spoke of his dissatisfaction with the non-response to two
letters he had sent BNV about a local issue. Others present commented that
cycle advocates often have their correspondence ignored and need to accept this
as part of the job and focus on their successes. Jason den Hollander apologised
to Gordon for this oversight, asked for a copy of the letter, and offered to
follow up on the issue.

11.BNV Report

Jason den Hollander gave a brief roundup of some of the main issues BNV is
currently working on.

·‘Vote
Bike’ is the campaign being waged to get more bike friendly councilors elected
across the state. 27 Councils are being targeted. All candidates in these areas
will be canvassed and their statements emailed to members and friends in the
relevant municipalities. Lists of questions will be sent out to BUGs.

·Bixie
is due out in mid-November. There will be a briefing session for BUGs. Glennys
Jones, who works on this, asked those present to scrutinize their councils’
budgets and report to her if there is any bike expenditure that she may have
missed.

·New
State Cycling Strategy. Jason said that this has been a rush job. Alistair MacDonald
added that while a few Councils had opportunity for input this too was rushed.
BNV’s involvement has been fairly minimal.

·Preparation
of the next State budget is now getting underway so the time is ripe for input.